As will be understood by a worker skilled in the art, the word extrusion can refer to the process of squeezing a material through a shaped orifice to produce a linear element with a desired cross section. The word extrusion can also refer to an element or part produced by this process.
The use of synthetic materials such as, for example, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is well known in the field of residential and industrial constructions. In particular, extrusions of such synthetic materials are often used in the fabrication of doors and windows because they are easy to maintain, relatively inexpensive, light, durable and energy efficient, which has been traditionally used for hundreds of years. However, despite all its advantages, synthetic materials do not offer the traditional finish that wood does.
There have been efforts in the past to enhance the visual appeal of PVC extrusions by attempting to modify them to look like wood. For example, painting PVC extrusions is known and does produce a modified appearance of the extrusions; however, even when painted, they generally do not resemble wood or any other natural material.
In another known approach, cellular PVC is embossed to imitate a wood finish. However, such embossing is performed during the extrusion process per se, before the extrusions are allowed to cool, which means that modifying the appearance of installed extrusions is not an option. Moreover, this embossing method cannot be easily applied to hollow, rigid PVC extrusions, since such hollow profiles generally cannot accept the applied pressure stemming from the embossing process without suffering structural damage.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a method of texturing PVC, and synthetic material extrusions (SMEs) in general, that can be performed after the manufacturing of the extrusions, i.e., after the extrusion and cooling processes. It is also desirable to provide a method of texturing SMEs that is applicable to hollow SMEs without causing any structural damage thereto.